


If You Have Any Questions

by orphan_account



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-04
Updated: 2011-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-21 00:36:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Portal. Chell fills out her application as a test subject for Aperture Science.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Have Any Questions

_Click._

“Here ya go, love.” He handed the pen off to her. “Just fill the paperwork out, and feel free to ask me any questions.” He leaned back in his chair as she began scribbling in silence.

“Any questions at all, just feel free to ask and I will answer them to the best of my abilities which is... quite good.”

Her pale blue eyes flicked up him and she nodded, continuing with her application in silence.

The small, cramped, downright _claustrophobic_ little space was quiet save for the scritch of the pen on paper, and the shuffling of pages as she read through all of the warnings and legal jargon.

Her brow furrowed and she flipped between two sheets quickly.

“Confused?” her practitioner asked, leaning forward. She shook her head and went back to writing. He relaxed, letting out a meek 'ah'.

He felt downright useless. Most people had questions-- questions concerning safety procedures, and the lack thereof. Questions about the tests they'd be performing, questions about _when_ they'd be seeing that money they were promised for participating... so many questions, and he had _so many answers_. All of the answers, even, to every possible question and he was eager to share these answers.

“I know it can get a bit uh. A bit _technical_ ,” he said at length, itching to talk. He didn't like silence. Everyone else, his coworkers, the test subjects, they were content to stay quiet. Speak only when necessary. Not him. He hated quiet. When it was quiet, you could hear the cameras.

His eyes flicked up at one, the little red dot focusing on him with laser like intensity. He didn't like the cameras, they clicked and whirred and watched your every move. It creeped him out, knowing that his employers could see him no matter where he was. It was just unsettling, invasive... it was just weird.

It wasn't like that as his old job. His old job people chatted at the water cooler, and he got to answer phones. He was _paid_ to talk there, paid to talk talk _talk talk **talk talk talk.**_ It was nice, satisfying that itch to talk whenever he wanted. It was never quiet. You could never hear your footsteps, or your heart beating or the whirr of the cameras there. There were only voices, and laughing and water cooler chitchat.

It was nice.

He tapped his pen on the desk as she, a pretty young woman in her mid 20s, filled out additional paper work. She pushed it towards him, apparently finished.

“Ah, good good! All seems to be in order,” he said, flipping through things. “Very nice very nice. So, you... you read it all, then?”

She nodded.

“...and you still want to do this?” he asked, hesitating.

Again, she nodded.

“Well, all right love!” He got to his feet and held out his hand. She took it silently, and he eagerly pumped her hand up and down, jostling her slightly. “Welcome to Aperture Science! Where we do what we must because we _can!_ "

**Author's Note:**

> This would not leave my head until I wrote it down. My first attempt at a real Portal fic.


End file.
